“That was incredible,” he murmured, reaching out an arm and pulling me close. “Don’t you think so?”
I nodded even though his eyes were closed. “It was,” I said softly. Drowsiness overcame me and Blake pulled a blanket over us. In my sex coma, I was deliriously happy. I’d never felt like this before in my life. I suddenly wanted to end every night with Blake, Blake, and nothing but Blake.
“This is perfect,” I said softly. “Really perfect.” And I meant it.
Chapter Twenty Two
Blake
I was just drifting off to sleep when Sarah wrapped her arms around me and snuggled close. She nuzzled my chest and I felt a surge of affection for her.
“Have you ever been in a fight before?” Her voice was laced with sleep and happiness; I loved the way she sounded after she came. I squeezed her close and chuckled, nuzzling her red hair.
“Are you kidding?” I asked.
Sarah rolled onto her side and looked at me. “No,” she said softly. “Why would you ask if I was kidding?”
“Because I’ve been in so many fights I don’t remember them all,” I said with a laugh, raking a hand through my hair. Sarah’s body tensed but she didn’t reply. “I mean, come on, Sar. I’m in the Devil’s Own. We get in a lot of little tiffs with other gangs. You’ve heard of the Aztecs, right? I mean, shit, Jimmy and I have put so many of those guys in the hospital. That’s how it is, though, especially right now. This gang war doesn’t come cheaply.”
Sarah didn’t say anything. I rolled onto my back and stared at the ceiling. “Shit, I mean it’s great stress release sometimes, you know? Sometimes nothing feels better than duking it out with your fists.”
Sarah pulled away. She gave me a look that I couldn’t read before climbing out of bed and wrapping the sheet around her.
“What’s wrong?” I asked. “Where are you going?”
She didn’t answer. I saw her bottom lip begin to tremble and she let out a sniffle as she ran out of my bedroom and down the hallway. I barely had time to get out of bed myself before I saw that she was almost fully dressed. Sarah was red-faced and trying to put on her bra in a struggle. I reached out to help her and she leapt away, almost losing her balance and falling over. I raised my eyebrows.
“You wanna tell me what the fuck is going on?” I tried again. “What happened? What did I do?”
Sarah glared at me. Her green eyes were blazing, and I almost felt a little intimidated. “I can’t believe you, you monster,” she whispered hotly. “I can’t believe you would beat up other guys for fun! What kind of a sick fuck are you?”
“Oh, come on!” I cried, throwing my hands in the air. “What do you want me to say? That I hate doing it? I don’t, Sarah, it’s a part of being in the club. This kind of shit happens. This is how guys deal with their problems. We’re not women; we don’t talk about shit every time something goes wrong!”
Tears filled her eyes as she tugged her tight blouse over her head. Not even the sight of Sarah’s generous cleavage could make me feel better.
“I have to go,” she said. “It was a mistake for me to come here.”
“Sarah, come on,” I pleaded. “Those other guys are assholes! They deserve it! Wait ’til I tell you about all the stuff they’ve done to me!”
When she didn’t answer, I pressed on. “Look at my face! You can’t just expect me to get the shit beaten out of me and let it go, right? I mean, would you do that? I don’t think you would!”
Sarah didn’t answer. She glared up at me as she tugged on her shoes. When she got to her feet, I watched her walk unsteadily towards the door.
“Sarah, don’t go,” I told her. “Come on, it’s really late. Just stay overnight and we’ll talk in the morning.”
She looked at me with tears in her eyes. “I can’t,” she said after a pause. “I have to go. I don’t hang out with guys who are monsters,” she said after a moment, her hand on the knob. “I can’t believe you like to hurt people just for fun!”
“That’s not what I said!” I argued, raking a hand through my hair in exasperation. But it was too late; she was gone. “Fuck,” I mumbled. “Way to fucking go, Blake. Another prizewinning night for yours truly!”
Part of me hoped she’d come back, but her diminutive footsteps disappeared soon after she’d left. I stared at the door for a long time, but she didn’t reappear.
Suddenly, I felt wide awake. The post-sex coma was no more, and my head was starting to pound. I reached up and found that the swelling was even worse than it had been before. With a sigh, I walked into the kitchen and yanked open the door of the fridge. There was a six pack in there, and I grabbed and it took it with me to the couch.
Turning on the TV, I cracked open one of the beers and poured it down my throat. This was going to be a long night.
Chapter Twenty Three
Sarah
By the time I’d run out to the parking lot, I remembered that I didn’t have a ride home. Shit, I thought to myself. What now?
Blake didn’t live in the best part of town, and I was more than a little worried about some creep picking me up. Finally, I remembered that I’d parked my car at Julia’s. It was too late to call her, so I called a cab. It took forever to get there; by the time it arrived, my ass was numb from sitting on the curb. I wanted to cry but the tears wouldn’t come. It was like I couldn’t even shed a tear for Blake. I felt so stupid for getting involved with someone like that in the first place. What kind of idiot thought that her new motorcycle club boyfriend wasn’t going to be a complete and total thug?
“Boyfriend,” I muttered out loud. “Fuck that. I don’t need a boyfriend,” I said, louder this time. My voice sounded hollow and shrill in the dark nighttime air. “Forget that,” I added. I wanted to go home and sleep and forget the whole thing. Blake had been perfect: so intense, so charming, so demanding, so absolutely thrilling in bed. Of course there was a catch. There was always a catch. They were always secretly married or into weird shit or unable to hold down a job. It figured that Blake would be a sadistic prick under his seemingly-perfect and gruff exterior.
The cabbie pulled up in front of me and rolled down his window. “Ms. Ward? Did you call for a cab?”
I nodded, blinking back tears. “Yeah, thanks,” I told him, climbing into the backseat. Giving him Julia’s address, I closed my eyes and leaned against the seat. When I shifted, I could smell the scent of Blake’s bed wafting off my skin. It filled me with a mix of lust and regret. I decided that before I could sleep, I’d have to take a shower. Otherwise I wouldn’t be able to stop thinking about Blake and all of the delicious things that he’d done to my body. I shivered.
“You alright back there?” the cabbie called out. “You cold, ma’am?”
“No,” I said, trying to sound cheerful. “I’m fine, thank you.”
He grinned at me in the rearview mirror. It was a look I’d seen a hundred times before: “What’s a pretty girl like you doing looking so glum?” But it was a question that I was sick of answering, and I desperately hoped he wouldn’t bring up the apparently shocking condition of my mental health.
“What are you up to by yourself this late?” the cabbie asked. I groaned inwardly. “Boyfriend’s baby mama come home and catch you?”
“Not hardly,” I said. “I’m just tired, so if you could take me home, I’d appreciate that. Thanks.”
The cabbie’s reflection in the tiny mirror looked chastened, and for a moment I felt bad about my little outburst. “Sorry,” I muttered. Either he didn’t hear me or he chose to ignore me, and I settled into the backseat as much as I could, trying to make myself invisible. By the time we got to Julia’s, I was relieved to be on my own again.
After tipping the cabbie generously, I climbed out of the backseat and got into my car, feeling weary. I couldn’t believe that twelve hours ago, I’d been so optimistic about the two of us. With a sinking feeling, I remembered what Blake had said.
“Because I’ve been in so many fights I
don’t remember them all. I mean, come on, Sar. I’m in the Devil’s Own. We get in a lot of little tiffs with other gangs. You’ve heard of the Aztecs, right? I mean, shit, Jimmy and I have put so many of those guys in the hospital. That’s how it is, though, especially right now. This gang war doesn’t come cheaply.”
I shuddered. Gang war. I’d been involved with someone who was in a gang! It was too much to handle. When I slipped the key into the ignition of my car, I looked up at Julia’s windows. The lights were on, but I knew that I couldn’t possibly wake her up. What was I supposed to say? “Sorry, I know it’s late, but I just found out that my boyfriend is in a gang!”
Better just go home, I thought sadly. The streets were quiet, and I kept repeating Blake’s words in my head, over and over. I couldn’t believe that he’d been so forthcoming about being so violent. I’d thought that his attack on Roger was something out of the ordinary, something to protect me. But turns out it was just another weekday for Blake Ward.
Blake Ward. I cursed his name as I drove. I wished that I’d never heard it. I wished that I’d never told him about Roger, or about me, or about those blasted naked pictures. I realized sadly that everything Julia had told me was likely true; Blake was just the latest in a series of disappointing boyfriends. I had to look out for myself, because no one else would. And even if Blake did, did I really want him to? I shuddered as I imagined him controlling everyone in my life with violence. If Julia had ever found out that Blake had beaten someone on my behalf, she’d be furious with me.
It was just my luck, too. It was just like me to find someone, obsess over them, and then discover somewhere between date two and date four that they were an asshole. Chase had been a manipulative dick, Jared had been even worse. Sure, Blake wasn’t manipulative exactly, but he was a violent psycho. And that had to count for something, on the scale of Dating Guys Who Aren’t Good For You.
“Where are all the nice men?” I wondered out loud. My apartment complex was practically empty. The parking lot was full of spaces, for once, and I was struck with a sudden lonely feeling. What if it was empty because everyone was out with their partners?
Behind me, headlights bounced and trailed over my car. I frowned when they didn’t blink off. Instead, they stayed illuminated. Pain flashed through my head when I realized they were high beams, and they were glaring off all the shiny surfaces in my car.
“Hey, asshole,” I muttered. “Quit it. Turn your fucking lights off!”
I whipped my head around and looked behind me. The car looked familiar, but I couldn’t place it, until I heard laughter coming from the open driver’s side window. Oh, god, I thought, starting to panic. Roger.
Quickly, I threw my car into reverse and tried to back out of the space. Roger’s car roared past me, blocking the entrance to the apartment complex. Cold fear crawled down my spine and I shivered. Maybe I can make it inside if I run, I thought. Just be faster than him and get inside. I mentally planned out the escape in my head: I’d flee the car and bolt up the back stairs, then let myself in. I’d have to be fast, but I might be able to do it. The driver’s side door on Roger’s car opened and he got out, lurching on foot towards my car.
Desperately, I flung the door open and leapt onto the pavement. As I ran, I tried to dig through my bag. My fingers groped balled-up tissues, sunglasses, lip balm—everything but the keys. The panic inside of me grew as my feet stumbled blindly in the darkness. From behind me, I could hear Roger’s feet slapping against the pavement in blind pursuit.
“Help!” I screamed loudly. “Help! Someone’s chasing me!”
Roger let out a guttural laugh. “You’re just wastin’ time, baby,” he sang out, making me shiver. “Ain’t no one going to help you now!”
“Help!” I shrieked again. When I got to the stairs, I took a deep breath and ran up them as fast as I could. My legs were burning by the second landing and I knew that Roger was close behind. Finally, my fingers closed around a bunch of serrated metal—my keys! When I got to my door, my heart was in my throat. I reached out with a shaky hand and tried to unlock the door, but before I could even get the key in the lock, I dropped them between my feet.
“Shit!” I howled loudly. Groping blindly on the dark floor, my hand scraped over splinters and grit. Roger’s hands landed on my shoulders when I was still looking for my keys, and with a sinking feeling, I knew it was all over.
“You know you can’t outrun me, baby,” Roger said sweetly. Even with my back turned, I could smell his foul breath. “Now let’s have us a little chat inside.”
“Fuck off,” I spat. “Leave me the fuck alone, asshole!” I whirled around, preparing to slap him, when a gleam of metal caught my eye. Roger held up a pistol. He shoved it in my face as he grinned at me.
“I don’t think you’re gonna be cursing at me anymore, baby,” Roger said softly. “Now let’s go have us that talk.”
I shuddered. Roger smiled at me coldly and shoved the gun closer to my face; up close, I thought I could smell the metal warming in his hand. “Fine,” I said, trying not to show how afraid I felt. “Come inside.”
Roger stepped close behind me and hovered over me as I found the keys on the ground and picked them up. I closed my eyes and willed Blake to come out of nowhere and take Roger. Maybe he’d followed me home. Maybe he was waiting in the wings, waiting to protect me if anything bad happened. I shuddered. I knew Blake wasn’t there. Why would he be? I was the one who had left.
When I pushed the door to my apartment open, Roger pushed the gun into the back of my neck. “Walk over to the couch,” he instructed. I shivered. When I didn’t take a step forward, I felt his hand slap me on the ass.
“Don’t touch me,” I hissed.
Roger jammed the gun into the base of my skull. “I’ll touch you however I want,” he said. “Now do what I fucking said, bitch.”
I shivered. Angry Roger was new. I didn’t know whether I preferred him to Cajoling Roger, but I had a feeling that he was probably more dangerous when he was angry.
“Walk faster,” Roger grunted. I stumbled and almost fell but regained my footing. It took me an eon to cross the living room floor and sit on the couch. When I did, I looked up at Roger expectantly.
“What?” I said, trying to sound casual. “What do you want, Roger? It’s really late.”
His lips curved into a thin smile. “I’ve been waiting for you,” he said softly. “But you weren’t home, Sarah. Where were you? Out fucking that meathead boyfriend of yours?”
I shuddered. How did he know where I’d been if he was waiting for me the whole time? “None of your business,” I said calmly. “What do you want?”
Roger sat down next to me, alarmingly close. I could smell the tobacco reek of his clothing. “Oh, Sarah,” he said slowly. “You’ll learn to be nice to me one day. At least I hope you will,” he added. “It would benefit you tremendously to treat me with just a little more respect. Whatever happened to being grateful to me for trying to help you?”
“You weren’t trying to help me,” I retorted. “You were trying to blackmail me with naked pictures. You knew I didn’t want to help, but you made me do it anyway.”
“You’re really stupid,” Roger said. He hooted with laughter and I felt a cold chill wave through my body. “You think I’d really let you off the hook that easily?”
I looked at him numbly. “I don’t care about the pictures anymore,” I told him honestly. “You don’t have any leverage over me anymore, Roger.”
“That’s what you think, sweetie,” Roger said calmly. “You really think I have no other ways of forcing you to do things?” He waved the gun around in the air and I shuddered. “I have a lot of ways you haven’t even thought of,” he said softly. “You’re gonna have to trust me on that one, baby.”
“Get to the fucking point,” I spat. “What do you want?”
“I need some more help, from my favorite little actress,” Roger said. “That would be you, if you were too stupid to get the refe
rence.”
I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. The cruelty and sarcasm dripping from Roger’s voice was enough to make me want to cry, but it had been such an exhausting night that I was basically running on fumes. I felt like part of me wasn’t even there in the room with him. Part of me was still roaming the streets. Or roaming Blake, a little voice in the back of my head piped up. Shut up, I thought. Blake isn’t going to come save you this time.
“What do you need?” I asked dully.
Roger looked at me and frowned. “That’s not the kind of enthusiasm I’m looking for,” Roger said in a bright voice. “You need to be a little better about asking me what I’d like you to do. Really put some effort into it, baby. After all, this is acting we’re talking about here.”
Thief: Devil's Own MC Page 16
